The Mommy's Guide To Events!

Sesame Place Opens Up Their New MonsterLand!

This past Father's Day we took our annual pilgrimage to the wonderful Sesame Place in Pennsylvania. Every year we always spend a great day among all the wonderful rides and characters that don the impeccably clean theme park. No seriously, you will never find a cleaner theme park, ever, but I digress. This year we were in for a new experience with the opening of the new Cookie's Monster Land! I was sad to see our old favorites go, like Cookie Mountain, Ernie's Bed Bounce, and the net climb that have been there since I was a child (so in my son's mind a BILLION years ago.) However, I was completely enthralled with all the new rides and setup that they somehow managed to pull off flawlessly within the course of the closed season. The rides are all shiny and new with great monster related themes. The teacups have been revamped into a disco themed ride complete with light strobes, Big Bird's Balloon ride is now a Cookie

Monster themed ride, with a new paint job and the same fun. The nets were torn down, but in their place they put a smaller Monster Club House climb that the kids all loved to climb on and bounce around in, and as a parent, I liked that fact that it was WAY easier to keep an eye on my son in this new condensed version. Underneath is a small play area for the smaller ones complete with a foam floor and tiny sized tunnels for the kids to climb through. Other brand spanking new rides included the ship themed "Captain Cookies High C's Adventure" where you hop into a small pirate ship and ride up and down the cookie seas. The Honker Dinger Derby is a great fast paced ride that the older kids will enjoy, but my favorite- Oscar's Rusty Rockets. This is a small ride good for all ages where the rocket carts are made out of what else- garbage cans! Oscar does hold a special place in my heart so I was happy to see he got a ride of his very own.
All in all, while those who have been going to the park for years upon years upon years may mourn the loss of some of the golden oldies, once you walk into the beautifully re-done part of the park you will soon get over it.
There are other changes in the park as well- including some of the shows, which was a great surprise. We only caught one- as we brought our 11 year old niece with us this time and she was all about the rides-Elmo The Musical! It was adorable and in the newly redone indoor theatre where Elmo's World used to play. With a great new sparkly set that includes a talking curtain, LCD screens, singing chickens, and an appearance of Cookie Monster, this show is a musical air conditioned treat that will have your kids jumping up from their seats!

Other things that have changed: Character Placement- Yeah that's right they are changing up where you go for meet and greets and I have a pretty good list for you!
Zoe is at the entrance of Twiddle Bug Land, and The Count is straight across from Zoe. Ernie and Abby are both across from Hooper's market, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird are planted in hop scotch alley next to Hooper's and 123 Sesame Street, and Super Grover, well he has planted himself in Elmo's World right by the big slide! Other news-worthy info is the childre's menus- plates are now Cookie Monster- no longer Elmo, which is exciting, but if you need Elmo for your meal- you can now order Elmo Lunch Boxes before you even get to the park-which is neat!
All the other parts of the part were equally as brilliant as the new Cookie Monster Land, the staff is helpful and accommodating, the park is clean and well maintained, and your day will be well spent with character meet and greets, parades, rides, and live performances, making the little over two hour drive well worth the wealth of experiences and memories you are going to have for a lifetime.